Monday, October 17 2005 17:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Sometimes its thousands scrambling for just one bag of rice or out-running each other to grab blankets air-dropped from army choppers. Yet villagers in some quake-hit regions of PoK have sacrificed urgently needed relief for those who require it more.

Despite an acute dearth of relief material and having lost every earthly possession in the October 8 killer quake, the locals have stood tall against misfortune sacrificing their own share of relief for those remaining cut-off in the remote areas.

Their government having almost collapsed, people of Monassa, Baglota and Balandkot village have formed local committees to ensure that those stranded in the upper reaches of the mountains get their share of aid that the army personnel bring hourly to the more accessible regions.

"We have had enough," Farooq of Balandkot was quoted as saying by the local media. "When trucks carrying tents, blankets and food came by our village, the elders decided that we should refuse it and instead direct them to the remote villages that are still cut-off by road," he said.

The solidarity shown in the face of a calamity are reflected in other villages as well. Fifteen families in Baglota have embarked on a similar pact - to maintain a common bank of sorts of relief goods and dole out equal amounts to individual members just to prevent lawlessness and looting. And the system works.

"We have seen how desperate people looted relief trucks, the result of which many went hungry while few families gathered more than they needed," Samiul of Monassa said.

"Our way ensures that food, medicines, tents are distributed in a fair way," he said.

Relatives comparatively better off, and various agencies donated shoes, clothes, and sheets to many villagers, who in turn carried a portion of it to the upper reaches by foot where stranded villagers are growing desperate by the minute for essentials.

Some areas of Muzaffarabad and Balakot however, saw looting, where people allegedly robbed dead bodies of jewellery, the Pakistani press said.

Bangles, nose rings and bracelets were literally torn off from the dead by groups of people in an area where law and order has taken a back seat as compared to distribution of urgent relief material. However amidst reports of robberies, Government officials were quoted as saying that they were trying to bring some semblance of order into the chaos.

Fearing an influx of survivors into the capital city, officials are gearing up to set up tents to house squatters.